Rio Paralympic Games: Australian para-canoe squad named with medals there for the taking

WHEN it comes to making his Paralympic Games debut, Afghanistan war veteran Curtis McGrath has a single golden strategy in mind.

SCOTT WALSH

2 min read

June 16, 2016 - 4:21PM

Curtis McGrath, Amanda Reynolds, Susan Seipel and Colin Sieders will go for gold in Rio in September.

CURTIS McGrath doesn’t hope. He plans.

And when it comes to making his Paralympic Games debut in Rio in September, the Afghanistan war veteran has a single golden strategy in mind.

“The goal of wanting to be the best at something, it’s a strange feeling to think you’re the best in the world at something, or close to it, and it’s quite unique,” McGrath says.

“I’m working each day, knowing everything I am doing, those moments go towards me being on the podium again.”

McGrath was named as part of Australia’s six-person para-canoe team on Thursday, announced on the Gold Coast, ahead of the sport’s Games debut in Rio this year.

The former sapper, who lost both legs below the knee in a Taliban bomb explosion while serving in Afghanistan, will line up alongside fellow Queenslander Susan Seipel, New South Wales pair Colin Sieders and Dylan Littlehales, Victoria’s world champion Amanda Reynolds and South Australian Jocelyn Neumueller.

McGrath was a member of the Royal Australian Engineers Corps when, on August 23, 2012, an improvised explosive detonated beneath him in Afghanistan’s Khas Uruzgan province.

Less than two years later, in 2014, and just eight months after taking up para-canoe, he was the world champion and new V1 200 world record holder in his KL2 class.

McGrath wants to add Olympic medals to those won at world championships.

McGrath has said even while he was being air-lifted to safety following the explosion that changed his life, he was plotting a course to the Paralympics.

On Thursday, he said his chance to wear Australian colours at his maiden Games in Rio was a dream come true.

“I’ve done it once before on the battlefield in an army uniform and it’s a great honour to now be able to represent Australia again wearing green and gold,” said McGrath, already with three world championships golds and a silver.

“To be able to represent my country at a Paralympics is a great honour and it’s not every day that someone gets to represent their country on a sporting stage of that magnitude.

“To go to Rio as part of the first Australian para-canoe team will be inspiring.

“It’s great to be part of a sport that can explode and evolve the future of the Paralympics, and I’m thankful to have a place on a team where I get to be part of that.”

Australia is among the world leaders in para-canoe, having won 16 world championship medals — including 7 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze — since the discipline was introduced in 2010.

Reynolds will also make her Paralympic debut, and said she was confident despite dropping her world title in a silver finish at this year’s world championships.

“Making it to Rio was a goal that I set three years ago for me to work towards. To reach that goal is a big box ticked, but I think everyone’s goal now is to make the centre spot on the dais,” she said.

“For me to get to the top, that would be an awesome achievement.”

AUSTRALIA’S RIO PARALYMPICS PARA-CANOE TEAM

Colin Sieders (NSW)

Curtis McGrath (QLD)

Susan Seipel (QLD)